DietPi: creating a lean-and-mean Roon Bridge

philr · December 10, 2016, 1:26pm

Interesting. I have one Pi3 with A DAC Hat and one with a Digi Hat will the same image work with both of these or is there some other configuration I need to do?

Dan_Knight · December 10, 2016, 1:35pm

Looks like they support Debian already, shouldnt be too much to create the DietPi image: http://wiki.solid-run.com/doku.php?id=products:imx6:software:os:debian . Just need to get my hands on one of the devices to implement it. Not available in EU as far as I can see

RBM · December 10, 2016, 1:38pm

You could edit the config file mentioned above for each Pi I guess: find the # Soundcard section and change it to

#Soundcard
soundcard=hifiberry-digi

for the Digi Hat and

#Soundcard
soundcard=hifiberry-dac

or

#Soundcard
soundcard=hifiberry-dacplus

for the respective Hifiberry DAC Hats. Other Hats wil very.

Or just run dietpi-config after boot and select your Hat from 2. Audio Options > Soundcard.

Dan_Knight · December 10, 2016, 1:41pm

Should be fine. If i remember correctly, Roon GUI allows for selection of soundcard?

If not, which DAC and Digi are you using? Might be available in dietpi-config > Audio Options > Soundcard

RBM · December 10, 2016, 1:42pm

Yup – I run mine with Armbian for now. They were extremely cheap at a Dutch reseller a few months ago, but they appear to be all gone.

RBM · December 10, 2016, 1:51pm

The Roon GUI just reflects the sound options offered by ALSA for enablement:

Dan_Knight · December 10, 2016, 2:18pm

Thanks.

Our RPi image currently supports these soundcards, all of which can be enabled in
dietpi-config > Audio Options > Soundcard :

github.com

Fourdee/DietPi/blob/master/dietpi/dietpi-config#L3449-L3458




		Net_Update_UsageStats eth$ETH_INDEX


		G_WHIP_DEFAULT_ITEM="$WHIP_SELECTION_PREVIOUS"
		G_WHIP_MENU "Current Details:\nUsage   : Sent = $NET_TX_MB | Recieved = $NET_RX_MB\nMode    : $mode_current\nIp      : $ETH_IP\nMask    : $ETH_MASK\nGateway : $ETH_GATEWAY\nDNS     : $ETH_DNS"
		if (( $? == 0 )); then


			#Return to this menu
			TARGETMENUID=9

@philr
If you card is not listed, let us know and we will add it into dietpi-config

philr · December 10, 2016, 3:19pm

Thanks they are listed. They are the hifberry DAC+ and digi+ . I read the earlier posts in this thread and in think I know what to do now. Will give it a go after the holidays. Thanks again.

Dan_Knight · December 10, 2016, 6:56pm

For those interested in how lightweight DietPi + Roon Bridge is, here is htop screenshot from a RPi 3:

RBM · December 10, 2016, 7:01pm

Check the first post…

Mike_Pinkerton · December 11, 2016, 1:53am

Is there any way for dietpi to support both RoonBridge and being a HQPlayer endpoint? Sometimes I want to upsample.

wizardofoz · December 11, 2016, 10:58am

My new pi3 should arrive this week and I will hope to get running easy peasy from instructions here…hope it’s as easy as everyone says…I’m pretty rusty on my PI’s and linux these days

What size sad card do I need as minimum for brisdge use only?

RBM · December 11, 2016, 11:02am

You’ll be fine – and otherwise, just give a shout.

I use 4GB cards, but DietPi + Roon Bridge will do fine on 1GB. See also: http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9

RBM · December 11, 2016, 11:09am

Signalyst’s NAA needs a few updated libraries from Debian Stretch that are not present in Debian Jesse – you’ll see the needed dependencies when you try to install the NAA in DietPi. You can get these by temporarily change the ‘jessie’ entries in /etc/apt/sources.list to ‘stretch’, run apt update and install the required packages manually. Change back to ‘jessie’ when you’re done.

Be aware that Stretch is still unstable though – and that there’s no telling that DietPi will continue to behave nicely after installing them. Also: NAA only releases its grip on ALSA when the HQP application is fully closed – you won’t be able to stream to Roon Bridge while HQP is running.

Mike_Pinkerton · December 11, 2016, 3:37pm

Thanks for the info. I’ve been using this combo on stretch for a while so I understand how they work (or not) together.

The last time I set up my Pi, changing from jessie to stretch required a lot of downloads. It felt like just about everything was getting updated. Will the stretch packages that get downloaded still work when everything reverts to jessie?

RBM · December 11, 2016, 3:44pm

When you try to install the networkaudioxxx.deb under Jessie, you’ll see which dependencies/versions fail (gcc6 and one other, if I remember correctly).

After updating the entries to stretch and running apt update, install these packages manually:

apt install package1 package2

That way, only these packages are updated and not your entire system. When finished, restore the entries to jessie.

And yes – they will continue to work – at least they did on my Cubox. Of course, YMMV. Godspeed!

andybob · December 11, 2016, 4:54pm

If @Dan_Knight was looking for further suggestions re: DietPi …

Jussi Laako’s Signalyst Network Audio Adaptor (NAA) (predating Roon) is a thin Ethernet client for his HQ Player software. HQP is a highly regarded (including by yours truly) software upsampler and convolver that can improve all but the very best DACs, bypassing their internal conversion/filter stages by feeding them the highest upsampled input they can accept.

Roon can act as an integrated front end for HQP, either via localhost on the same machine or to an IP address on a different machine. HQP becomes a network zone in Roon and audio can be sent to it like any other zone. Thereafter HQP controls distribution, meaning the NAA daemon takes the place of Roon Bridge.

The NAA daemon is available from Signalyst here. Every HQP licence includes a licence to use the NAA software. I understand Jussi encourages widespread dissemination of the NAA daemon, but you might check with him directly (@jussi_laako on this Forum). Jussi is a great supporter of various open source endeavours, including his own open source hardware DSD only DAC (DSC 1).

Provision to install (and update) the NAA daemon with DietPi, including installation of the Stretch packages to make it run, would be a great feature imo.

RBM · December 11, 2016, 5:08pm

I don’t think it is wise to ship an unstable compiler with a stable release, but I best leave that to Daniel…

That said: Stretch is nearing release – although it could take some time before Raspbian is released in Debian 9 outfit.

Dan_Knight · December 11, 2016, 5:12pm

HQP looks like an audiophiles ‘wet dream’ . I’ve created a ticket for this, lets see if we can add it to DietPi-Software: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/641

We currently have a BruteFIR installation available for DRC (http://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=5&p=57#p57), uses ALSA loopback, however, HQP + NAA daemon looks much more impressive.

RBM · December 11, 2016, 5:16pm

HQP does many things, but is best known for its upsampling capabilities (PCM and DSD). For some it is the holy grail of digital audio – others care slightly less.

There’s a generous trial allowing you to find out where you sit.